III. Make up your own sentences with the given word combinations:

- lunar surface;

- numerous discoveries;

- each month;

- laser reflection;

- physical characteristics;

- to measure a distance;

- remotely controlled cameras;

IV. What other information do you know about the Moon exploration and its surface? Find some extra facts and make a short presentation in your group.

Text 3. Early Russia’s Plans for Manned Mars Missions

Ever since advances in astronomy bestowed Mars with the potential to harbor life or even an intelligent civilization, the planet has been the subject of public interest in Russia, as it has been in the most industrialized nations.

In the artificially optimistic atmosphere of the post-revolutionary Soviet Union, both, sci-fi writers and enthusiasts of space exploration chose Mars as a destination for human expedition.

However, it took several more decades for the idea of human travel to Mars to be seriously evaluated by the engineers of the infant Soviet space industry.

At the beginning of the 1960s, the OKB 1’s studies of manned planetary exploration evolved further to include the landing of a piloted expedition on Mars. The spacecraft, carrying crew of six and powered by electrical jet engines and a nuclear power generator, would be assembled in Earth orbit out of elements launched by individual rockets.

The design of the Mars landing complex in the project would rival the wildest imagination of science fiction writers. It would deliver to the Martian surface a ”train” of five movable platforms.

One platform would carry the crew cabin with a manipulator and a device for drilling soil. The second platform would be a launch pad for an aircraft capable of flying in the Martian atmosphere. Two more platforms would carry main and backup return rockets, which would allow the crew to take off from Mars.

Finally, the fifth platform would be equipped with a nuclear-powered generator, which would supply the expedition with energy. The ”train” would travel across the Martian terrain for a year, collecting samples and relaying data to the base craft orbiting the Red Planet.

At the end of the mission, the crew would take off from the surface to rendezvous with the orbiting base ship for the return journey home.

Russian Mars plans experienced a hard landing with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As the old Soviet economy collapsed in the 1990s, so did the government financing of all but a few of the most immediate space projects.

In 1994, while US-Russian space cooperation enjoyed its honeymoon, RKK Energia management informed NASA about its Mars-exploration projects. The Russian proposals reportedly generated a great deal of interest in the US but, the relationship between two partners has soured since then.

Undeterred by politics and the dire financial situation in the Russian space industry, experts from both countries have maintained low-profile contacts.